After yesterday's jag on the Stairmaster, I found myself increasingly hungry. VERY hungry. And I had limited options to satisfy that hunger. And I was increasingly COLD. Very cold. Just couldn't warm up. My food options for the day: coffee/tea (no milk) (don't drink either one), pop, clear juice, popsicles, chicken or beef broth (no noodles), jello, sherbet. And none of the food items could be red. If you're 50 or over, you probably know what I was doing yesterday. Yup. Prepping for my first colonoscopy. A topic probably avoided by most people, especially in a public forum, but I guess I'm not most people. My grandma died of colon cancer at 68 and a friend was just diagnosed in November. It's a necessary evil, and though not how I'd chose to spend a boatload of discretionary money, something that everyone should do when the time comes. I'm hoping that if I can convince someone that it's not so bad and they go get one themselves, I will have done something positive by posting about it.
So yesterday I ate 6 sugar-free Jell-O cups (10 calories each), one cup of chicken broth (10 calories), 3 popsicles (45 calories), Diet Coke, 32 oz. (plus) water, Fresca, low-sugar apple white grape juice (80 calories). It had to be a minimum of 3 liters for the day. And then, 2 liters of the "beverage" Colyte. 195 calories for the day. I was very hungry. I have to say, that was the worst part of the prep for me. Hunger. People had been telling me about the prep ("It's the worst part") and I must say I was pretty wigged out and was expecting much worse. A bother and a hassle? Yes. Slightly unpleasant? Yes. But not as bad as I was expecting.
This morning brought 2 more liters of Colyte and a little Diet Coke. I wasn't too hungry today until I left for the hospital. All that fluid in my stomach for most of the morning took care of the hunger pains. The procedure takes place at the hospital (Olmsted) in the outpatient surgery area. I got my id bracelet and an IV.
I was seated on a gurney, rolled down the hall, and there I waited listening to tunes on Pandora. My nurse, Nate, and I found lots to chat about. Pandora was one thing. It's a website that lets you create your own radio station of sorts. Tunes are sorted on 26 factors and you are able to select your tunes based on criteria that you choose. It also turns out he's training for his first marathon ... Grandma's. He lives in Hayfield so he won't be coming in to town for Saturday long runs. :-( We also got talking about cookies. More on that in a bit. So I told him I wanted to listen to something soothing on Pandora during the procedure. He came up with Enya. Relaxing to be sure. I have a couple of her CDs. No AC/DC, Van Halen, Def Leppard, Steppenwolf, KISS ... for me. There was a bit of a wait after arriving in the procedure room. Probably almost half an hour due to a longer than expected case next door. I was hooked up to a blood pressure/O2 saturation/pulse monitor. So I practiced a little biofeedback to see how low I could get my BP and pulse in such a setting. (130/58 for BP and 63 for pulse. It's hard to totally relax waiting for the unknown. And I don't know if it made a difference, but I had on a t-shirt and sweatshirt and the cuff was around both. O2 sat. remained at 100% since I was receiving oxygen through a nasal canula.
Nate eventually returned and told me that I'd be received a medication to sedate me, but that I wouldn't be asleep. I'd be awake, but relaxed through the procedure. Hmmmm. I wasn't sure how I felt about this. I was expecting a "wake me when it's over" scenario. But I went with the flow. It sounded like an easier recovery afterwareds. He said he'd give me a half dose to begin with and let me decide if I needed more. So I rolled on my side and we were off. There was a big screen TV right in front of me and I could watch the whole thing. I found it very interesting. I'd never seen inside myself before. I asked the surgeon if I was "clean enough" and he said yes. One of my fears going in was that something ugly/messy might be encountered. No problem. The only discomfort I encountered was when Nate had to press VERY HARD on my abdomen to help the surgeon get the camera around a bend. Ouch. But the pain was short-lived. The pictures are taken "on the way out". The inside is kind of yellow-ish and you can see that it's supplied with lots of blood. Not a smooth surface. This may be too graphic for some of you ... sorry. But I found it very interesting. I wish I had my camera. I'd have blogged it. :-) Anyway, to my untrained eyes there were bumps all over the place, but it turns out I'm 100% normal and clean as a whistle. Don't need a return visit for 10 years. Good news.
After the procedure, I was wheeled into an adjoining room for a few minutes where I was given a bottle of water and my BP was monitored. I was allowed the peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my purse. SOLID FOOD. Yee haw!! I also had one of my pecan/oatmeal/chocolate chunk cookies as a post-procedure treat. Nate popped his head in the door. I asked if he wanted the cookie. I told him I had lots more at home (not exactly the truth ...) He said sure, and he was going to eat it right there in front of me. He broke off about a 1/4 of it, said YUM!! and put the rest in the bag in his back pocket. See ya Nate!!
The gal wanted to check my BP standing up. It was fine, so I was cleared to dress and go home with my post-procedure instructions. (Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. And walk to expel the air that's pumped it to expand the colon for easier viewing. Hence the indoor laps this afternoon. No driving for 24 hours.) Much easier than I expected. I was so glad I wasn't put to sleep as I don't enjoy coming out of anesthesia. I ran my mile for the day with Matt mid-afternoon. No problem. Matt drove me to HyVee afterwards.
We stopped at Kwik Trip for one of my favorite junk-food treats, a chocolate-frosted creme-filled long john, straight-up (no nuts or sprinkles).
But with all that air milling around inside me, I have to say I wasn't really that hungry. :-( So the long john sat on the counter all day. Matt said he'd enjoy some split pea soup for supper, so I made a pot and had a bowl of that. Just what the doctor ordered. Warm, solid food. And a popsicle (cherry today!) for posterity.
Don't forget ... the Lace-Up half marathon preview run is tomorrow at 7:30 at Mayo High School tennis courts. I may be there. I may not. Dress for the weather. It's gonna be cold. Polar Bear fun run and lunch at the Y (free) at 11 AM.
Good night all.
Posts
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment